Fun_People Archive
8 Sep
Bits of Bull No. 338

Date: Fri, 8 Sep 95 00:52:57 -0700
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Bits of Bull No. 338

Excerpted-from: BONG Bull No. 338!
	...
ABOUT THAT SPELLCHECKER. "At the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., where
our style was to change Thursday, Friday, Saturday, etc., to yesterday,
today, tomorrow, as appropriate. One of the deskies had a key on his
terminal set up to do the search-and-replace; unfortunately, he wasn't one
of the most alert members of our craft. Thus one Saturday,  readers of the
advance TV listings were invited to tune in to the classic film, 'Never On
A Tomorrow.'" -- Peter S. Young, The New York Times (youngp(at)is.NYU.EDU).
     --  "I was editing a county commission budget story by a new reporter
who was making his first dip into municipal financing. His spell checker
had not recognized the word "millage" (which he did not know enough to avoid
in the first place!) and he -- maybe intentionally -- hit the key to accept
the computer's suggested substitution. He had written that the county had
set the annual 'pillage rate.'" -- One DodgeMA (at) aol.com.
     -- Mike Bowen (mbowen(at)nando.net) rats on the Harnett County. N.C.
Public Library, where his wife is children's librarian.  The library's
paper, the Bookbag, lost to the spell-checker in a toddler story hour item.
Instead of "toddler caregivers," the article invited all "toddler
carnivores."
	...
EXPURGATE AT WILL.  Emery Jeffreys (jeffreye (at) db.erau.edu) of the
Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal advises that he is finishing the
Burned-Out Journalists Triage Page, beginning with this quote from an old
UPI style manual written by Bobby Ray Miller in 1981:  "BURRO, BURROW -- a
burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the ground. As a journalist you are
expected to know the difference."
     Jeffreys seeks cute art or icons, tips on dealing with irate editors
(there will be links to online job ads), ammunition to counteract the latest
committee or team memo, story ideas, tips on what to do if the villagers
are gathering with torches, and a link to BONG Bull's web page.
     He seeks ideas, suggestions or dire warnings of what he shouldn't put
there.  Until Jeffreys gets connected, point at http://www.au.com/bong/.

THIS WEEK'S SIGN THAT THE APOCALYPSE IS UPON US:
DLButler(at)aol.com reports that the Weekly World News, the only supermarket
tab to admit up front that they make it all up, has taken up residence on
America Online.

© 1995 Peter Langston